Ken Squier was the superhero of motorsports storytellers
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Storyteller.
That term has become a bit overused. From social media influencers to suburban Substackers, everyone loves to declare themselves a storyteller. The great ones never need to wear that name tag, though. You know them as soon as you hear them.
Ken Squier was, above all else, a storyteller.
“Like bullets they propel themselves out of the corner!”
“He’s getting some air … gobbling it up in that car, No. 88, keeping it cool to get ready for that final assault …”
“Johnny Utsman hand grenades the engine! It detonates right at the start-finish line!”
Squier’s own remarkable life story ended Wednesday night, passing away at the age 88. But the sound of his perfectly balanced hard-yet-gentle New England voice and the stories it told us all, from the public address speakers of Vermont and MRN Radio to CBS and TBS television, will never stop echoing off the walls and halls of racetracks and the broadcast booths that look over them.
“Look at that Oklahoma land rush on the backstretch!”
“He fireballs his way into the lead!”
Squier’s story is equal parts Howard Cosell and Johnny Appleseed. He was a New Englander, born and raised in Waterbury, Vermont, the son of a radio station owner. He’d listen to auto races carried by WDEV and became enamored with the urgent, gallant descriptions of the men who piloted hurtling pieces of machinery around places such as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, devouring and studying those broadcasts like a literature professor delving into Shakespeare and Chaucer. He took what he learned to the PA microphones of short tracks throughout race-car-obsessed New England. The talent that oozed from those speakers caught the ear of NASCAR president Bill France, who was kicking around the idea of a radio network that could bring his stock car races to a broader audience.
“I think, at least I hope, that what Bill heard was something different,” Squier recalled in a 2013 conversation following his election to the NASCAR Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. Yes, that’s his name on the award. “When we first started discussing what we could do that was perhaps a little different was focusing on the drivers. There would always be a place to discuss the mechanical aspects of the cars and the race strategy, all of that. But in the end, it had to be about those heroes behind the wheel and the death-defying stuntmen who went over the wall to pit those cars. It’s not about metal and engines and tires; it’s about the people and the stories behind those people, because they are remarkable people.”
So was he.
With France’s blessing, it was Squier who constructed the Motor Racing Network in 1970, with races carried by a collection of radio stations that grew from a smattering of southern outposts to a nationwide chain that reached into the hundreds. He assembled a team of fellow local racing broadcasters and PA announcers, including the man who shares top billing on the Squier-Hall Award, the pride of Elkin, North Carolina, Barney Hall.
“So, you took a Vermont Yankee and a North Carolina hillbilly and you put them on the radio together to talk about race cars,” Hall recalled in 2013 with a chuckle. “But it worked. And it worked because Ken believed that if you could tell a story in a unique way, use different words, really take the listener down into the infield, make them feel like they were there, then it didn’t matter where you were from. Just look at our teams at MRN and what he had on TV. Broadcasters from all over the place. That made listeners from all over the place feel welcome on a Sunday afternoon.”
It was never enough for Squier to simply broadcast NASCAR races and be done. He was always working on a deal somewhere. He was instrumental in helping the sanctioning body ink its landmark deal with CBS, a partnership that lasted two decades and began with what is inarguably Squier’s most famous moment: the finish of the very first CBS flag-to-flag live broadcast, the 1979 Daytona 500.
“And there’s a fight! Between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, their tempers overflowing. They’re angry. They know they have lost. And what a bitter defeat.”
His voice, and this legendary call, forever changed our sport. pic.twitter.com/scozSNQuRt
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 16, 2023
Squier never stopped running WDEV and its regional network, which his family still owns, and for decades, even as he jetted off to commentate Olympic speedskating or to shoot movie scenes with Burt Reynolds, he still found time to cohost a weekly WDEV show titled “Music to Go to the Dump By.” He never stopped doing whatever he could to keep up the health of grassroots racing in New England, even when he had become larger than racing life, especially his beloved Thunder Road Speedbowl, a quarter-mile hilltop oval in Barre, Vermont, that he founded more than 60 years ago.
“You would watch him on TV doing a race from Talladega on CBS with Dale Earnhardt battling Richard Petty and then three nights later he’d be with us doing public address at Thunder Road,” two-time Xfinity Series champ Randy Lajoie recalled at the NASCAR Hall of Fame standing next to Squier in 2013. “I would say, ‘Ken, you know you don’t have to slum it with us anymore,’ and he’d say, ‘I love it here. And you’ll be racing at Talladega with us soon enough.’ Damn if that wasn’t true. And I think he had a lot to do with people down there even knowing who I was.”
Squier was always scouting for and coaching up young talent, both on the racetrack and those talking about the racetrack. An endless roster of former and current motorsports broadcasters, from broadcast and cable TV to terrestrial and satellite radio, got their first breaks at one of his racetracks or radio stations. And no matter where any NASCAR media member comes from, anyone of a certain age with a media center credential has at least a few stories to tell about Ken Squier calling, writing a letter or pulling them behind a stack of tires in the garage with suggestions, advice and a bit of razor-edged New England criticism.
“Don’t settle for ordinary words of description when extraordinary words are available.”
“Connect the everyman with Superman and Superman with everyman.”
“Never forget, no matter how big it gets, above all else this sport is about common men doing uncommon things.”
The last time I chatted with Squier in person, we talked about a column of mine he had just read and didn’t like. He told me that he didn’t agree with my premise, but he appreciated my passion. Then he noticed my ring, emblazoned with the red, white and blue shield of Captain America. He grabbed my hand and pointed at the emblem.
“Well, of course you like superheroes. We are surrounded by them every weekend at the racetrack.”
Yes, we are. And Ken Squier was one of them. The superhero of motorsports storytellers.
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs rookie starter Shota Imanaga lowered his ERA on the season to 0.84 on Saturday after throwing seven shutout innings in his club’s 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
It’s the lowest mark through a pitcher’s first nine career games since ERA became an official stat in 1913, besting Fernando Valenzuela, who compiled a 0.91 ERA after nine starts in 1981.
“If I’m being honest, I’m not really too interested in my own stats or any historic value,” Imanaga said after the game through the team interpreter. “But just knowing that there are so many good pitchers that came before me is a good learning experience.”
Imanaga, 30, gave up four hits while striking out seven including his final batter with two on and two out in the seventh inning. He used a combination of nearly all fastballs and splitters to stymie the Pirates, making him the very early front-runner for NL Cy Young. Pirates manager Derek Shelton was asked why he’s so tough to square up.
“That’s a great question,” he answered. “This guy is going to give hitting coaches nightmares. The fastball is not 94-95 mph but it’s effective. The split is real. It’s strike to ball.”
Imanaga averaged just 90.9 mph on his fastball, which he threw 46 times. The rest of his pitches were splitters — save four curveballs. All of it was extremely effective, moving from the top of the zone with the fastball and coming down with his split.
“You feel the hitter a little in-between,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It makes both pitches better.”
The Cubs won the game on a walk-off RBI single by Christopher Morel that plated Cody Bellinger, though the play at the plate was reviewed before the celebration at Wrigley Field could begin. It’s the team’s first 1-0, walk-off win since September 2015.
“We’ve won two 1-0 games that he’s started,” Counsell said. “It’s hard to win 1-0, and the fact that he’s been the starter nine games into his career in two of them is incredible.”
In addition to being the lowest to start a career through nine outings, Imanaga’s 0.84 ERA is also the third lowest through the first nine games of a season for any pitcher, trailing only Jacob deGrom (0.62) in 2021 and Zack Greinke (0.82) in 2009. The win came a day after Pirates rookie Paul Skenes struck out the first seven batters he faced en route to a six-inning, no-hit performance. Imanaga did him one inning better, making the Pirates the ninth different team unable to solve the lefty.
“We’re fortunate to watch it,” Counsell stated. “His aptitude, pitch-making ability, his stuff, his competitiveness. They’ve all been a joy to watch.”
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The Yankees waxed the White Sox 6-1 on Saturday to earn their sixth straight win behind two players.
One, Juan Soto, was expected to lead the club to victories after he was acquired in December. He smashed two home runs, both long beyond Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right field, to emphatically snap out of a mini personal skid with his first multi-home run game as a Yankee.
The other, Luis Gil, was expected to begin the season in the minors, honing his craft, waiting for an opportunity. Instead, Gil continued his unforeseen breakout campaign Saturday, delivering the best start of his young career with 14 strikeouts — a Yankees rookie record — on 98 pitches over six innings as New York improved to an AL-best 32-15.
The 25-year-old right-hander recovered from a 29-pitch first inning to produce 27 swing-and-misses behind a fastball that touched 100 mph and a changeup he has developed into a devastating offering. At one point, he struck out nine of 10 hitters. He held the White Sox to five hits and one walk. In the end, he lowered his team-best ERA to 2.39 across nine starts.
“Today felt like, maybe, his best one,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Gil is in the rotation only because Gerrit Cole isn’t. Cole began the season on the 60-day injured list after being shut down in mid-March with an elbow injury. On Saturday, the team’s ace took a significant step forward in his rehab — logging a 40-pitch bullpen session, divided in two to better simulate a game experience. He remains encouraged in his return to the mound.
For now, Cole is playing the part of assistant pitching coach — and making an impact on his replacement. Gil credited an increased focus and Cole’s tutelage — during games and in between starts — for his success after his performance Saturday.
“I have a teacher, Gerrit Cole, who’s teaching me how to pitch, how to handle situations and how to execute,” Gil said in Spanish. “And that’s what we’re doing, what he teaches me, and we’re applying it in the game.”
Gil has been dominant in May after posting a 4.01 ERA in five April starts. Since then, he has allowed just two earned runs with 27 strikeouts in 24⅓ innings across five outings. He made history Saturday by breaking Orlando Hernández’s Yankees rookie record for strikeouts in a game. Hernández, who set the mark in 1998 with 13 strikeouts, happened to be in attendance Saturday to throw out the first pitch.
“It was a pleasure to meet him,” Gil said. “He was a great pitcher. I loved getting to meet him.”
Chicago’s only run off Gil came on Andrew Benintendi’s two-out, check-swing RBI double to open the scoring in the first inning. The lead was fleeting. Soto responded in the bottom of the frame, smashing a pitch from Brad Keller 112.5 mph for a solo home run. He did it again in the fifth inning, this time launching a pitch from Keller 437 feet to right field for his 11th home run of the season. He finished the day 4-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs.
Soto’s explosion came after he went 4-for-31 (.129) without a home run over his previous eight games. The relative struggles were enough for him to take additional batting practice several hours before the Yankees and White Sox opened their series Friday. Soto took swings with hitting coach James Rowson and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler. He then went 1-for-4 with a double, hitting the ball hard in play three times, in a Yankees win.
“Last night,” Boone said, “was the prelude to today.”
Soto declined to share what he worked on specifically during Friday’s extra hitting session, but he noted he was searching for the “feeling” he had over the first five weeks of the season when he was dominating pitchers on a daily basis.
Did he get it back?
“I think so,” Soto said with a smile.
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